December 2011

December 18, 2011

Every baseball manager has their own way of leading a team. There is no right or wrong way. It's in the results. It's how the players respond.

In the five seasons Tony Franklin managed the Trenton Thunder, the Double-A Yankees affiliate, his way of leading has been as a calm but firm force. His approach is consistent. He's never been anyone but himself. And his players have responded, in turn, with their own consistency in the development process.

Under his leadership, some of the Yankees top prospects have successfully made the jump to Triple-A and onto the majors, Austin Romine, Jesus Montero, and Dellin Betances among them.

Earlier this week, the Thunder announced that Franklin will return for a sixth season. Part of his job will be to continue to foster a winning mentality. Perhaps to some, winning at the minor league level doesn't matter. But Franklin has never viewed it that way. Something the Yankees clearly appreciate.

Franklin will be seeking a third Eastern League championship and he'll likely do so with yet another highly touted catcher behind the dish. Gary Sanchez is considered the best catching prospect in the system (Montero's value isn't measured in his defense) and spent 2011 with the Class-A Charleston Riverdogs. He hit .256, improving in key areas. He increased his RBI total to 52, worked 36 walks, and 146 total bases from 2010.

Outfielder Slade Heathcott could also be joining Franklin after level-jumping in 2011 between Charleston and High-A Tampa.

Tony Franklin's steady temperament is a balance that young players respond to.

December 07, 2011

The press box is no everyday office. Neither is the clubhouse, which, strangely, is a workplace for the media. The job is strange. So it's understandable that personal rules for attire tend to be quite different from the rules clearly issued to anyone in a normal office.

MLB issued a dress code policy on Tuesday that has caused an abundance of discussion, mostly healthy, a lot of it humorous, particularly on Twitter.

As a woman, I like my sundresses and skirts during the baseball work season. I check the hemlines, though I'm sure I've gone against the now regulated number of inches above the knee. But when I make my choices, I'm conscious of many things. Not that this is meaningful to everyone (probably not to men), but as a rule, women usually try to stick with the rule that if it's shorter on the bottom, cover up more on top.

Do women in offices wear micro minis? Sure. But MLB appears to be on a crackdown. HGH and skirts on the shorter side are getting some major attention.

There could be some tricky moments for me and other women in the industry. Is this sleeveless top in the policy? Do I need to get a ruler out for this skirt? That's an attempt at humor, but I'm sure it won't be that tough.

If you've walked into any office, women are wearing sleeveless shirts. So to say those are unprofessional is inaccurate.

There's more, though. The policy isn't simply a 'woman's attire' crackdown. Male baseball writers are being giving what might be regarded as even tougher standards. So many of them dress casual to the point of being the object of good-natured jokes from colleagues. We never imagined they were going to get reprimanded for the hideous Hawaaian shirts and sandals. But the policy states those sandals are a health hazard. Not a bad point. Our eye health is also improved. More humor!

The policy is new and inspiring many jokes, so it's going to take some time to see how successful it is.

The policy leaves a few questions, none of them attire related.

The casualness of the press box allows for many things, wardrobe might be part of it. But will MLB crack down on vulgar language in the press box? Because that language is decidedly not office-like and inappropriate. How about the sexual language male writers freely exhibit around their female colleagues? That too wouldn't be allowed in an office. Neither would male writers commenting on their colleagues bodies or the bodies of any woman in a disrespectful manner. So if male writers have a problem with women wearing a sleevless top, perhaps they could dial down the sexual vulgar language. You know, because they're concerned about appropriate press box behavior.

Then there's the issue of players making sexual comments and offensive advances when women enter the clubhouse. Perhaps MLB could show some real concern with that. Because that problem continues.

Maybe this is the moment when women in the industry stop accepting many things. We accept rude language around us, toward us, and about other women (won't share how many ugly discussions about Erin Andrews I've heard) in the press box and horrible treatment from players. We do our job and remember the industry we're in. This is not an office. This is not an office. Well, maybe it should be.

The next time a male colleague makes vulgar unprofessional remarks in the press box or players shout sexual advances across the clubhouse, perhaps we don't ignore that. We remind them to be professional. And appropriate.

December 01, 2011

**'The Beat' was published on December 16th. Read it here: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/115101

There is nothing so shameless and necessary as self-promotion when you are self-publishing fictional work.

In the coming days I will publish my first baseball short story on the self-publishing site Smashwords.

The story is set in the minors (where else?) and is an idea that went through a five-year gestation process. My desire to tell a fictional story about the minor leagues grew as the idea grew.

The story is a mix of ideas, inspired by my own experiences, and the unique world of minor league baseball. As I gained experience as a reporter, I experienced frustrations, and witnessed others. I saw and heard things that made me laugh, taught me to be tougher, and gave me insight into the heart of a kid's game. I understood young players and why they fought so hard for something they cared about. I saw their hearts break and watched them grow strong enough to pick up the pieces and declare there was another day, another chance, a way to make it. What was most profound was the pressure on guys so young and how they managed to not crack under it. That served as inspiration for the young top prospect the story focuses on.

That leads to what will inevitably be the main question. The player is based on no one. I imagined a player dealing with indescribable pressure and what he would do if the spotlight shined on him in a way that frightened him.

The writers in the story are a composite of people I know, some are experiences I've had or heard about. I will not name names. I won't answer questions about what's pure fiction or lifted from real life. And when I say they're people I know, that doesn't mean baseball people.

What I wanted was to tell a story about four writers on the same beat. I knew I wanted to main character to be a girl, fairly young, but a litle seasoned. The original idea came several years ago. I started thinking about writing about baseball writers in a different time period, but that fell away. It was also around that time when an expose book was written on a famous player. I started having a lot of conversations with writers about being THAT person, who blows the whistle, and exposes a player's life. Some people feel they're fair game, others have no interest in reading stories about players taken down that way. Around the same time, a minor incident happened when I was about report on something and decided against it. All those ideas came together and I started to have something.

My experiences through the years, a desire to tell a story about a female reporter and a group of colleagues chasing a big story became 'The Beat.'

What I didn't expect to come out of it was a recurring character. I'm planning on building a series of stories around her throughout her career and have already begun plans for the second installment. I hope for her to be a strong female character and a positive representation of women in the sports media. There's been so much negative attention and discussion about female sports reporters, I wanted to show a woman I related to, that was tough, thoughtful, and intelligent, but faces challenges she is forced to grow from in the business.

I've priced the story at a low rate, with every budget in mind and consideration to my own lack of experience. I'm known as a baseball reporter, not a fiction writer. I know that I have to build a following and so I wanted the price to be fair. I also understand it's not a full length book or a book at all, so I was realistic.

I'll be publishing it soon and I hope you'll read.

**Updated December 13th**

Publication of 'The Beat' will be Friday, the 16th. [official cover art above]

**Updated December 15th**

Some notes: I've played a bit with time and changed names and titles for story purposes.Here are a few of the changes, before you read, so that I might keep any confusion from happening.

*MLB Network didn't debut until several months after the story takes place.

*The team, the Trenton Hunters, is a Nationals Double-A affiliate in the story. The Trenton Thunder are actually the Double-A affiliate of the New York Yankees.